SlicethePie Unleashes Its First Fan-Funded Album

Share

SlicethePie Unleashes Its First Fan-Funded Album

We've been following this fan funded music trend as closely as we can, because after all of this talk of something coming in from the sidelines to reinvent segments of the music industry, fan-funded music is a concrete example of this, replacing two components of the standard record label: A&R (finding artists) and the financing of albums.

SlicethePie announced $2 million in Series C funding on Monday, the same day its first fan-funded album (The Alps' Something I Might Regret) went on sale. The band, one of the first to sign onto the site, went through a rigorous selection process to get to this point, first beating 98 percent of the other SlicethePie entrants in its review pool then raising $30K from investors to make the album.

Some of that money came from fans essentially pre-paying for thealbum (in addition to the right to buy shares at a reduced rate), whilethe rest comes from heavier investors who snapped up more shares.Using their funds, the band recorded Something I Might Regret with none other than Dave Allen, legendary producer of The Cure and Depeche Mode.

The current price for one contract in The Alps'latest album currently costs $3. For every 10K albums sold untilSeptember 13, 2009, investors get $2 for each contract they own.

The Alps have been enjoying airplay in the UK, and apparentlycommand a decent live following. Now that their album is on sale (distributed via TuneCore to Amazon MP3, eMusic, iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody), we'll see how SlicethePie, the band, and their investors make out.

How does Something I Might Regret sound? Well, it's not my exact cup of tea (currently PG Tips), but there's plenty to recommend it. You can hear samples on Amazon, iTunes, MySpace, and the band's secret download page.

Update: The band's own label, Elusive Records, will alsodistribute a CD version of the album via Genepool Distribution/Universal.SlicethePie and its investors do not get a piece of those CD sales.